[Peace-discuss] From Eric Margolis, Toronto Sun

[C. G. Estabrook]

[This comment from a Canadian columnist gets the reason for the administration's 
policy wrong -- it's not because "Obama has been under intense pressure" -- but 
it does indicate something important and dangerous that's not being talked about 
much in the US media, viz. US subversion & intervention in Pakistan.  --CGE]


...Washington's incredibly ham-handed efforts to use $7.5 billion US to bribe 
Pakistan's feeble, corrupt government and army, take control of military 
promotions, and get a grip on Pakistan's nuclear arsenal, have Pakistan's 
soldiers on the verge of revolt.

Obama has been under intense pressure from flag-waving Republicans, much of the 
media, and the hawkish national security establishment to expand the war. 
Israel's supporters, including many Congressional Democrats, want to see the 
U.S. seize Pakistan's nuclear arms and expand the Afghan war into Iran.

Obama should admit Taliban is not and never was a threat to the West; that the 
wildly exaggerated al-Qaida has been mostly eradicated; and that the U.S.-led 
war in Afghanistan is causing more damage to U.S. interests in the Muslim world 
-- now 25% of all humanity -- than Bin Laden and his few rag-tag allies. The 
bombing in Madrid and London, and conspiracy in Toronto, were all horribly 
wrongheaded protests by young Muslims against the Afghan war.

We are not going to change the way Afghans treat their women by waging war on 
them, or bring democracy through rigged elections.

I wish Obama would just declare victory in Afghanistan, withdraw western forces, 
and hand over security to a multi-national stabilization force from Muslim 
nations. Good presidents, like good generals, know when to retreat.

[Eric Margolis is a columnist for The Toronto Sun. A veteran of many conflicts 
in the Middle East, Margolis recently was featured in a special appearance on 
Britain’s Sky News TV as “the man who got it right” in his predictions about the 
dangerous risks and entanglements the US would face in Iraq. His latest book is 
American Raj: Liberation or Domination?: Resolving the Conflict Between the West 
and the Muslim World]